FATAL FRAME: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.3 Update + All DLCs

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a survival horror video game developed by Tecmo, Nintendo SPD, and Grasshopper Manufacture. The fourth installment in the Fatal Frame series is a prequel to Fatal Frame and the first on a Nintendo console, it was released in 2008 by Nintendo for the Wii in Japan. A remaster for eighth and ninth-generation consoles and Windows published by Koei Tecmo was released worldwide in 2023.

The story, set on the fictional Rougetsu Island, focuses on Ruka Minazuki, one of a group of girls who were held captive on the island for unknown reasons. Years after their rescue, still suffering from amnesia, Ruka and the two surviving girls return to the island to seek out the truth. The game’s title stems from a ritual mask key to the story. The gameplay, as with previous entries in the series, revolves around the main character exploring environments and tackling hostile ghosts using the Camera Obscura.

The idea for Mask of the Lunar Eclipse came to series co-creator Keisuke Kikuchi when he first saw the Wii hardware. Kikuchi and series co-creator Makoto Shibata returned as respective producer and director, while Grasshopper Manufacture’s Goichi Suda acted as co-director, co-writer, and designer. The gameplay concept was making the player feel the fear evoked in the game. The addition of further developers to the project enabled the team to reconsider the standard formula, although it proved to be a chaotic experience. As with previous games, the theme songs were sung by Tsuki Amano. When released, the Wii original became the best-selling entry in the series to that date and received generally positive reviews from critics.

GAMEPLAY

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a survival horror video game that has players taking control of four different characters navigating a variety of different environments, including traditional Japanese houses and a Meiji-era sanatorium-turned-hotel while facing hostile ghosts through photography using the series’ recurring Camera Obscura. In the original version, third-person navigation and first-person control of in-game weapons such as the Camera Obscura are controlled using the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. The 2023 remaster reworks these for each console’s controls. During exploration, the characters are regularly attacked by hostile spirits, who take away the characters’ health through touch.

The two central characters can fight off and defeat spirits using the Camera Obscura. Shots taken by the Camera Obscura deal varying amounts of damage based on how close the ghost is, the angle of the shot, and the film used. These factors are taken together to determine how many points the player is awarded for a shot. The most damaging type of shot is the “Fatal Frame”, which is achieved if a shot is taken when the ghost is attacking. Points are used as the in-game currency, which can be used to save points to purchase items such as medicine and other items. Blue gems scattered around the environment can be used to upgrade the Camera Obscura, with some upgrades speeding reload time or enabling shots to deal more damage. Types of film range from unlimited low-quality film that deals little damage to rarer and more powerful film types.

In addition to the Camera Obscura, the third character can use a flashlight to explore their surroundings, and one character has access to a special Spirit Flashlight, which uses moonlight to pacify spirits. Should a ghost attack, gestures with the Wii Remote can shake them off. The “New Game+” mode unlocks additional costumes and further items and upgrades, many of them dependent on how much the player has scored during the initial playthrough. On higher difficulties, the number of items available is reduced.

SYNOPSIS

In 1970, ten years before the start of the game and sixteen years before the first game suspected serial killer Yō Haibara kidnapped five girls from their rooms in a sanatorium on Rougetsu, an island south of Honshu. The girls were rescued from a cavern beneath the sanatorium by detective Chōshirō Kirishima, who had been pursuing Haibara, but they had all lost their memories. Two years later, a catastrophe strikes Rougetsu Island which kills off the inhabitants. Eight years later, in the present, two of the rescued girls have died in mysterious circumstances and two of the survivors, Misaki Asō and Madoka Tsukimori, return to discover the truth about their pasts. Despite being warned by her mother not to return to the island, fellow survivor Ruka Minazuki goes there to find Misaki and Madoka. Shortly before Ruka’s arrival, Madoka is killed by hostile spirits.

Chōshirō, the detective who rescued them, also returns to the island to both find Ruka and continue his pursuit of Haibara. During her exploration, Ruka learns that she and Misaki are suffering from a supernatural disease called Moonlight Syndrome,[b] which affects their memories and identity and is spread by touch and vision. Each character also collects pieces of a mask used in a local ritual dance to guide souls into the afterlife. During the story, it is revealed that Misaki arranged their return to the island so their illness might be cured, and that Chōshirō himself died eight years before, and is now helping the girls guided by the benevolent spirit of Ruka’s mother Sayaka.

It is gradually revealed that Ruka’s father Soya Yomotsuki had become obsessed with completing the Rite of Descent ritual dance, as it would also cure the disease and required the construction of a special mask for the dancer. Ruka herself became infected, and was treated at the sanatorium along with the other girls and the dancer, Haibara’s sister Sakuya. The ritual was a catastrophic failure due to another tourist version of the Rogetsu Kagura ritual taking place above concurrently; Sakuya reached the final stage of the disease and fell into a coma when the mask of the lunar eclipse shattered, the other girls collapsed and their memories wiped, and the dancers in the tourist Rogetsu Kagura ritual all collapsed and died.

Two years after Misaki and Madoka left the island with Ruka, Sakuya woke up and infected the whole island, killing everyone who saw her face including Yomotsuki. To lay Sakuya to rest and calm Rougetsu’s dead inhabitants, the ritual must be completed, and for that, the mask must be restored. Ruka comes into possession of all the mask fragments, which reform into the complete Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.

Confronting Sakuya atop Rougetsu’s lighthouse, she manages to pacify her with a sacred tune called “Tsukimori” taught to her by Sayaka, then Chōshirō puts the mask on Sakuya, completing the ritual and allows all the island’s spirits to pass into the afterlife including Sakuya, Chōshirō, and Yomotsuki. Depending on the game’s difficulty setting, Misaki’s fate is either left unknown, or her illness is cured after she is saved by Madoka’s spirit and she leaves the island with Ruka.